A 42-year-old woman narrowly escaped injury when a gunman fired a shotgun through the front window of her home as she slept inside, write Shane Hickey and Tom Brady.

Gardai have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack.

It is understood a man got out of a car on the Sperrin Road in Drimnagh, Co Dublin, walked into the garden and fired through the front window.

Gardai have ruled out any connection with the ongoing feud between gangs in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas.

The house is normally occupied by the woman and her elderly mother, who is in hospital."I was in that bed, I was fast asleep when it happened. It could have been my ma there when it happened," said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.